December 7, 2005
An Ethiopian at Waterloo
Another day, another great Ethiopian blog. Aqumada includes an account from an Ethiopian travelling on a US passport through Waterloo, one of the main train stations in my country's capital city London.
I and another black African man were the only ones that I noticed were stopped at this checkpoint. Other nationals were neither stopped nor asked many questions while going through the checkpoint. A lone black traveller, however, does not have the same rights as other white travellers. The questions in the interrogation room mainly focused on my cultural and racial identity. Many ridiculous questions such as what my religion was and whether I go to the mosque were posed. Although irritating and embarrassing, I had to answer the questions in a way that would distance me from the stereotypical image of a terrorist (Arab and Muslim). At one point, one of the cops suggested that he remembered arresting me the previous week (a week I was not even in Britain). Not being able to control my anger, I lashed out at the police officers. Although he retreated from this question, I was probed via intentionally constructed misleading questions intended to find out whether I was an Eritrean/Muslim/Somali etc. I believe the fact that two Somali men (still at large) killed a British Police Officer during the previous week and the recent bombing incident that an Ethiopian man was involved in did not help.
The way he was treated is enough to make any self-respecting Briton ashamed. It is also deeply embarrassing. It doesn't say much about the intelligence of Britain's intelligence services that they think that randomly stopping black people at train stations actually makes us any safer. Is the next Osama really going to crumble after a couple of hours of good-cop-bad-cop routines and some random questions about mosque attendance?
Posted by aheavens at December 7, 2005 6:40 AM
Comments
selam Andrew,
It is not because of just terrorism or whatever,..it is just a bad stereotype. Last year I was flying from Amsterdam to London via easyjet and I was the only black (i am ethiopian). We arrived in Luton and as we were leaving,the guy in uniform just chose me of all the 30 or 40 something white people. He checked on my bag thoroughly. But why only me? For his information, I have never tasted a single drug and have never been to any koffee-shop in the Netherlands, while I freely could. Because of his non-sense color stereotypes, he perhaps missed real drug carriers
and will continue to do so. yeah, Andrew...you should be embarrased with your fellow folks.
Mintesinot
Posted by: Mintesinot at December 7, 2005 10:54 AM
Andrew,
Thanks for putting a link to the article. People need to know about these sort of abuses.
Mintesenot,
...even more disconcerting, is racial profiling part of the British police policy?
Posted by: yeklolotemari at December 7, 2005 7:21 PM
Yekolotemari,
I wouldnot dare to generalize like that! But you can see it as part of the big institutionalised racism existing everywhere across the western world.
Mintesinot
Posted by: Mintesinot at December 10, 2005 12:30 PM
yeklolotemari - I'm no expert. But it does seem that police do use a form of racial profiling in the UK. Their "stop and search" policy has often been criticised for targeting black and asian people.
A report by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) in November 2004 concluded that stop and search was "influenced by racial bias".
According to the report, the stop-and-search rates of black people in London increased by 30% between 2001 and 2002. For Asian people it rose by 41% but for white people it increased by 8%.
The BBC has published a history of stop and search up to 2002 here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2246331.stm
Interestingly, the police practice was supported by The Voice, a leading black newspaper in the UK. Editor Mike Best said concerns over stop and search were outweighed by the need to tackle violent crimes by drug gangs in the UK's black communities.
Posted by: Andrew at December 11, 2005 6:01 AM
Andrew,
Thanks for the info.
Problems are not solved by targeting a specific segment of a population based on superficial generalizations and dmeaning them. They are solved by paying attention to the root causes of the problems (Ex. Poverty). People like Mike Best do not shock me anymore. I have met many Ethiopians who argue that Ethiopians would have been better off if we had been colonized.
Love your blog. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: yekolotemari at December 12, 2005 7:13 PM
listen, i read your blog entry. although i do understand how this incident could have made you feel, but the British authorities do have the responsibility to protect Britons of all shapes, sizes and colours. including you. if they had not stopped you and asked, and clarified who you were, you were safe to go on with your journey.
the people who were involved in the bus explosions were Somali. they did not beat you. they didn't mis-treat you. but they clarified who you were.
i'm sure it would have really sucked if they let someone on the train with a bomb, who fit the description of those terrorists, and you were blown to pieces.
although they did question you based upon your cultural/ethnic background, and let you go on your way - they are there to ensure the general rights, freedoms, and safety that all British people enjoy. Many of those opportunites that aren't guaranteed in other countries.
Posted by: mikey at May 15, 2006 10:41 PM